THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 339 



SUMMARY. 



Eauk and social standing amongst these Indians being based largely 

 upon the possession and distribution of wealth, it is not surprising to 

 find a uniform currency amongst the different tribes, and a regular 

 system of exchange or trade based on considerations both of supply 

 and demand, and of the adaptability of certain tribes or regions to the 

 production of certain things needed in other parts of the coast. The 

 advent of the whites and the abolition of slavery have destroyed in a 

 measure the tendency towards feudalism in the village communities, 

 due to the possession of property and lands by a few families, and 

 practically changed the development of their tribal organization into a 

 tendency towards industrialism or division into trades crafts. This 

 tendency is seen to-day in the adoption of certain trades by the Indians 

 and the gradual breaking up of the old system of household organiza- 

 tion for industrial purposes. The writer once asked an Indian who was 

 loafing around Fort Wrangell in the summer doing nothing, whde most 

 of the other Indians were off in summer camp or working in the can- 

 neries, how business was, and he answered "very dull." When asked 

 what his business was, he replied " Oh, eberyting." As a matter of fact 

 he was a canoe-man, carrying freight up the Stikine Eiver, and at odd 

 times chopped wood for a living. The capabilities of these Indians in 

 a business way is well illustrated by an incident which the writer wit- 

 nessed at Port Townsend, Washington Territory, early in October of 

 1886. It was just at the end of the hop-picking season around Puget 

 Sound, and hundreds of Indians were coming in to Port Townsend en 

 route to their villages to the north. A party of young Haida stopped, 

 and one of their number telegraphed over to Whidby Island to offer the 

 services of the party to a farmer to dig potatoes for him. In view of 

 the glut in the labor market, due to the presence of so many idle In- 

 dians just then, this clever bit of enterprise showed an appreciation of 

 the telegraph in a wa3^ that needs no further comment other than that 

 they secured the job ahead of all rivals. 



